Singer Don Dada, born Menelik Gibbons has released his new single Viva Mandela.
The track is an official 2017 Nelson Mandela Day song and will be available exclusively as an MTN CallerTune and available for streaming and download on major music platforms.
The 30-year-old singer recently released his first album Avant Garde with the first single coincidentally released on Mandela Day in 2016. This brought inspiration and added to the task of writing a Mandela tribute song. While the song is Madiba-themed and inspired by Mandela’s book Long Walk to Freedom, it has a distinct Dada flavour incorporating hip-hop and reggae.
The song was recorded at Don Dada’s studio and record label RuFF CuTT Studio and was produced by SuperProducerRapz through a tight project schedule coordination by RasMoe.
Don Dada stuck to his Johannesburg roots by including Seed_Under, a versatile female artist he works closely with and Phiwe Romeo Phekana, his close friend. Being in the music industry for 17 years and being a freestyle rap battle artist, Dada has developed a talent for throwing words together in no time at all and perfected the art of writing songs which sometimes takes him less than an hour.
The recording of the Viva Mandela track, however, was a four-day process and unlike most songs about Tata Madiba, Dada decided to make his special song upbeat.
“Most of the Mandela songs are sad and I wanted to make mine more upbeat. I wanted to change the way we think about the man who brought freedom to South Africans,” the artist explained.
Viva Mandela is available for download and streaming on MTN Music+ and can be set as an MTN CallerTune by dialling *123*46664#.
Availability on other digital platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Google Play Music will be on the 7 July.
Read: Top SA celebs celebrate Mandela Day at Thusong
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